From the start, it definitely raises the letter A, so you couldn't exactly type ransom notes with it--you'd get caught right away.  "HIGH-A BANDIT IN CUSTODY" har har har.  Type bar straightening is kind of a dicey thing for me.  I've gotten them close, but not perfect.  I suspect this particular machine was used HARD, put in the shop several times and probably had individual typebars replaced.  Generally, a competent shop will have ways of straightening those because they had special tools and jigs with which to do this.  Me, I'm just an ol' shadetree typewriter mechanic, so usually I would take a machine such as this, replace ALL the typebars en masse, the segment slots too if they come out.  If you can still find a shop where you are, they may be able to help you.  Good luck.

I like your theory that the entire type basket is tilted - there is a clear monotonic trend left to right on all of the lines of type - except for the last line which looks completely flat. I believe we can make two inferences from this: first, whatever is tilted is not tilted all the time, and second, it's not the remote alternative that something systematically bent all the type bars up in this trend. Both inferences come from comparing the last line with its lower case version - these letters are on the same type slugs which cannot both be out of alignment and in alignment, whether the misalignment is from a tilted component or bent type bars. So it's definitely not bent type bars.

So what could be tilted but not tilted all the time? Either the basket or the carriage - if the machine has a basket shift I'd try to understand how the basket winds up skewed some of the time and if a carriage shift the carriage. Something has too much play in it and is unstable in tilt as it's raised and lowered.

Thanks Repartee, I'll take a look at the mechanism and see if I can figure out anything that supports the tilted basket theory.

Is the centre guide the fork thingy that the type-slug has to slot into before smacking the paper? (please take a moment to admire my technical vocabulary). If it is, I did adjust it earlier today - I discovered it was a bit off, which made some of the right hand side keys stick. Now all of the keys work well, but the letters are still misaligned. I'll apply the method you suggested as soon as I can get back to the typewriter. Right now I'm banished from it by the angry mob I share my house with.

For those who are located in North America, the part being discussed is commonly called the type guide.

The Super-5 type guide: